Challenge/Adversity Secondary Prompt

June 12, 2018 - Abdi

Challenge/Adversity Secondary Prompt Examples

1) Please describe a challenge you faced and how you addressed it.

2) Tell us about a difficult or challenging situation you have encountered and how you dealt with it. In your response, identify both the coping skills you called upon to resolve the dilemma, and the support person(s) from whom you sought advice.

I’ll go ahead and start with what I think should be the main takeaway: this prompt is NOT just about what challenge you faced and your adversity is not being compared to other people’s. It’s okay if you haven’t had to face some of the difficult circumstances others have faced. This prompt is trying to understand how you deal with stress and adversity, so the specific challenge itself does not matter as much. I’m certain that there has to be at least some sort of challenging or difficult situation you have faced; it doesn’t have to be a huge life incident or something dramatic. As long as you talk about a reasonable moment (please don’t talk about getting a B) where you faced adversity and how you overcame it, you’ll be on the right track.

Make sure that you respond to the second part of the prompt because that is what they are attempting to glean. A beautifully written response that discusses the struggles of dealing with an alcoholic and abusive father, for instance, would be a poor response if you did not talk about how you dealt with the situation and what skills you developed as a result of it. A strong response would then connect the skills that the individual developed with how those skills will benefit them as a medical student.

BREAKING DOWN THE PROMPT

Let’s say that you decide to talk about a rough transition into college as a result of being a first generation college student from a high school that did not prepare you well for college. You would start by explaining WHY this was a challenging situation for you.

Afterwards, you can talk about how you addressed the situation and the stress you were facing. Perhaps you started taking advantage of additional tutoring resources on campus, going to office hours, forming study groups, collaborating with your peers, etc.

Then, you’ll talk a bit about the results. Were the steps you took enough to help you overcome the challenge? In this case, you could talk about improved academic performance as the result.

Make sure to connect specific characteristics, perspectives, or skills you developed to the adversity you faced. You want to demonstrate that there was a lesson learned.

Lastly, you’ll want to connect the skills you developed to how they will benefit you in the future. In this particular situation, it’s an easy connection to make. Medical school will be very rigorous academically, and it’s entirely possible that this individual has a rough transition again. This time around, however, they can utilize the skills they developed to better handle the transition.

So, this prompt sums up to:

One way to tackle this prompt is to choose 2-3 challenging situations you’ve faced. Write out these four steps for each and select the one that is the strongest from the group. Good luck!